dated January 9, 1882, recommending the ratification by Congress of an agreement made February 14, 1881, by the Creek Indians, to sell to the United States a portion of their lands for the use of the Seminole Indians. Said agreement is as follows:

Under the provisions of the act of March 3, 1873 (17 Stat., p. 626), the Secretary of the Interior was authorized to negotiate with the Creek Indians "for the relinquishment to the United States of such portions of their country as may have been set apart in accordance with treaty stipulations for the use of the Seminoles and the Sacs and Foxes of the Mississippi tribes of Indians respectively found to be east of the line separating the Creek ceded lands from the Creek Reservation, and also to negotiate and arrange with said tribes for a final and permanent adjustment of their reservations."

So much of said act as relates to the Sacs and Foxes has been carried into effect by their removal to their proper location on lands west of the said “dividing line.” The Seminoles, however, are still occupying the lands belonging to the Creeks, for which occupancy the Creeks have as yet received no compensation, from the fact that no agreement could be arrived at between them and the United States as to the price per acre to be paid to the said Creeks by the United States for said lands.

The undersigned, members of the Creek delegation resident in Washington, duly authorized to act in the premises, both by appointment for general purposes under the certificate of the governor under the national seal, and also by special action of the national council in this instance, copies of which general and special authority are hereto attached, do promise and agree for themselves and for their nation that they will sell, cede, and dispose of the lands now occupied by the Seminoles belonging to the Creek Nation to the United States for the sum of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars.

And the said Creek delegation do hereby agree, for and on behalf of said nation, that they will cede to the United States, and do hereby cede, a strip of land in the Indian Territory, now occupied by the Seminole Nation of Indians, lying east of the said line dividing the Creek lands from the lands ceded to the United States in the treaty of June 14, 1866; bounded on the north by the North Fork of the Canadian River; on the south by the Canadian River; on the west by the dividing-line between the Creek Reservation and the lands ceded under treaty of 1866 above noted; and on the east by a line running north and south between the rivers named, so far east of said divisional line as will comprise within said described boundaries one hundred and seventy-five thousand (175,000) acres, at the price of one dollar ($1) per acre; said cession to be in full force and effect when the sum of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars shall have been deposited in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of the Creek Nation, to draw interest at the rate allowed in the treaty of June 14, 1866, wherein certain of their lands in Indian Territory were ceded to the United States; and one-third of said fund shall be forever set aside for educational purposes, and the remaining two-thirds shall be subject to such use as the Creek Council shall determine.

WASHINGTON, D. C., February 14, 1881.

WARD COACHMAN,
PLEASANT PORTER,
DAVID M. HODGE,
Creek Delegation.

With this report was submitted the draft of a bill to accept and ratify said agreement, providing that the Secretary of the Treasury should set apart and hold as a perpetual fund, as provided in the agreement, in trust for the Creek Nation, the sum of $175,000, to bear interest at 5 per cent. per annum; and also providing that the lands ceded to the United States should be set apart for the exclusive use and occupancy of the Seminole Nation of Indians, to be held by the same title as they hold their lands under the treaty of March 21, 1866, when the Seminoles should have relinquished to the United States the same quantity of land from the west side of the present reserve, and when said relinquishment should have been approved by the Secretary of the Interior and duly recorded in this office; and providing, fur ther, for an appropriation of $3,000, or so much thereof as might be necessary, to establish the outboundaries of said areas of land. By the deficiency appropriation act of August 5, 1882, the sum of

$175,000, as per agreement made February 14, 1881, in pursuance of the act of March 3, 1873, was appropriated to pay the Creek Nation of Indians for 175,000 acres of land now occupied by the Seminole Nation. As no appropriation was made to pay the expense of a survey of the outboundaries of said purchase, and the necessity of establishing permanent boundary lines, clearly defining the divisional line between the Seminoles and Creeks, is apparent, I recommend that an appropriation sufficient to enable the department to establish said boundaries be made, which should be in addition to the $100,000 asked for in the regular estimates.

FREEDMEN IN INDIAN TERRITORY.

The rights guaranteed to the freedmen in the Indian Territory by treaty stipulations have been ignored, and so far as their interests are involved the treaties themselves have been virtually set aside, both by the Indians and by the government.

Cherokee Nation.-By the fourth article of the Cherokee treaty of July 19, 1866 (14 Stats., p. 800), a tract of country in the Cherokee reservation, known as the Canadian District, was set apart for the settlement and occupancy of—

All the Cherokees and freed persons who were formerly slaves of any Cherokee, and all free negroes not having been such slaves, who resided in the Cherokee Nation prior to June first, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, who may within two years elect not to reside northeast of the Arkansas River and southeast of Grand River.

By the fifth article provision was made that those inhabitants electing to reside in said district might elect local officers, judges, &c., control all their local affairs, establish rules and regulations for the administration of justice in said district not inconsistent with the Cherokee constitution or the laws of the United States. By the ninth article the Cherokee Nation further agreed that all freedmen who had been liberated by the voluntary act of their former owners or by law, as well as all free colored persons who were in the country at the commencement of the rebellion and were residents therein at the time of the treaty, or who returned within six months, and their descendants, should have all the rights of native Cherokees, provided no pay or compensation should be paid for the slaves so emancipated. The tenth article declared that every Cherokee and freed person resident in the Cherokee Nation should have the right to sell the products of their farms, including live stock, merchandise, or manufactured products, and to ship and drive the same to market without restraint.

A bill to enforce the ninth article of the treaty of 1866, &c. (S. 648) was introduced in the Senate of the United States by Senator Ingalls June 3, 1879, and reported June 4, 1880, by Senator Williams, amending said bill so as to authorize the President of the United States to enter into negotiations with the Cherokee Nation for the purpose of finally settling the status and rights of the colored people in said nation, provided that such negotiations must be approved by Congress; but no subsequent action was taken thereon. By an act of the Chero kee Council, approved December 6, 1879, the Cherokee delegates were authorized and instructed to make arrangements for negotiation or otherwise with the government whereby existing difficulties and embarrassments between the nation and the government might be finally settled, respecting the status and rights of the colored people as stipulated in the treaty of 1866.

On the 28th of June, 1880, the Cherokee delegates called the attention of this bureau to said act, stating that the nation was anxious to

settle the question, while the department acknowledged the necessity for action to relieve this office of embarrassment in the administration of law in the premises, and requested that a commissioner or representative of the department attend the Cherokee Council at its next meeting. Accordingly Agent Tufts was directed, October 16, 1880, to attend said council and endeavor to secure such legislation as would secure the colored people the rights guaranteed them in the treaty of 1866. Agent Tufts attended said council, and, after a full interchange of views, the council passed an act which was approved November 23, 1880 (see Cherokee Laws, p. 325, edition of 1881), authorizing the principal chief to appoint three commissioners on the part of the nation to confer with John Q. Tufts, United States Indian agent, for the purpose of draughting articles of agreement for the final settlement of the status of the colored people residing in the nation and embraced in the treaty of July 19, 1866, said articles of agreement to be first submitted to the national council for approval, and, when approved, submitted to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for ratification by Congress. Agent Tufts met the commissioners appointed, but soon discovered that no action granting the freedmen the rights to which they were entitled would be entertained by them. It was decided, therefore, to refer the matter to the next council, which met in November, 1881, when a general discussion was had, but no action was taken. In his report of January 26, 1882, Agent Tufts states that

It is unpopular in the Cherokee Nation to advocate a measure that provides for placing the colored man on an equality with Cherokees, and the politicians are civilized enough to do nothing that might lessen their chances for political success; bence until the sentiment shall undergo a revolution there will be no favorable action.

From the hesitancy heretofore shown by the nation to carry out in good faith toward the colored people simply what has been granted them by the treaty, I am convinced that the nation will not fix and settle the status of the colored people until a more peremptory demand is made on the nation to execute the conditions of their treaty respecting them.

Many of the colored people speak the Cherokee language, and having been brought up among Cherokees and accustomed to their ways, it would be a hardship to remove them from that country, and remaining in the nation, they should be accorded all their rights. Agent Tufts recommended the appointment of a commission to visit the agency with authority to hear evidence and determine the question whether the claimants were freedmen liberated by voluntary act of owner, or by law, or whether they were free colored persons and in the country at the commencement of the rebellion; and whether they were residents of the nation at the time of the treaty, or returned within six months thereafter-the findings of the commission to be submitted to the department for approval.

Chickasaw Nation.—The status of the freedmen in this nation was fully stated in my annual report of last year (p. LII), and I invite your attention to the subject again as one requiring definitive action on the part of Congress. An act was passed by the legislature of the Chickasaw Nation, which was approved January 10, 1873, entitled "An act to adopt the negroes of the Chickasaw Nation," as follows:

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the legislature of the Chickasaw Nation, That all the negroes belonging to Chickasaws at the time of the adoption of the treaty of Fort Smith, and living in the Chickasaw Nation at the date thereof, and their descendants, are hereby declared to be adopted in conformity with the third article of the treaty of 1866, between the Choctaws, Chickasaws, and the United States: Provided, however, That the proportional part of the $300,000, specified in article third of the said treaty,

with the accrued interest thereon, shall be paid to the Chicasaw Nation for its sole nse and benefit: And provided further, The said adopted negroes of the Chickasaw Nation shall not participate in any part of the said proportional part of the said $300,000, nor be entitled to any benefit from the principal and interest on our invested funds or claims arising therefrom, nor to any part of our common domain, or the profits arising therefrom (except the forty acres per capita provided for in the third article of the treaty of 1865), nor to any privileges or rights not authorized by treaty stipulations: And provided further, That the said adopted negroes, upon the approval of this act, shall be subject to the jurisdiction and laws of the Chickasaw Nation, and to trial and imprisonment for offenses against them in every case just as if the said negroes were Chickasaws.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this act shall be in full force and effect from and after its approval by the proper authority of the United States. And all laws, or parts of laws, in conflict with this act, are hereby repealed.

In transmitting this act to Congress, Secretary Delano, under date of February 10, 1873, recommended that such legislation be had by Congress as would extend the time in all respects for the execution of the provisions of the third article of the treaty of 1866 for the term of two years from the 1st of July following. This subject was referred to the Committee on Freedmen's Affairs, February 13, 1873, and ordered to be printed, and there legislation ceased. (See H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 207, Forty-second Congress, third session.)

Subsequently resolutions in relation to the freedmen and their descendants in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations were adopted by the legislature of the Chickasaw Nation, which were approved October 18, 1876, authorizing the election by the legislature of four commissioners, one from each county in the nation, to visit the capital of the Choctaw Nation during its next regular session, with instructions to confer with commissioners from the Choctaw Nation, and agree upon some plan whereby the freedmen formerly slaves of the two nations and their descendants should be removed from and kept out of the limits of the Choctaw and Chickasaw country. (See Chickasaw laws, p. 148, edition 1878.) And, again, the legislature of said nation passed an act, approved March 17, 1879, authorizing and directing the governor to appoint five commissioners to meet like commissioners from the Choctaws to confer on the freedmen question, and all questions that might affect the joint interest of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, and report in writing to the governor, said report to be laid before the next meeting of the legisla ture, and to be approved by them before it should be binding on the Chickasaw people. (See page 6 of Pamphlet Laws, 1878-81.) While the act of 1873 contemplated the adoption of their colored people into the nation, that opportunity was lost by the failure of Congress at the time to take definite action thereon, and all subsequent action has shown a tendency on the part of the Chickasaws to effect a removal of all freedmen from their country.

Choctaw Nation.-The status of the colored people in the Choctaw Nation was set forth in my annual report of last year in conjunction with the Chickasaws. Since that time, a "memorial to the United States Government in regard to adopting freedmen to be citizens of the Choctaw Nation," adopted by the Choctaw council and approved by the governor November 2, 1880, has been submitted, wherein they declare their willingness to accept their freedmen as citizens, in accordance with the terms of the third article of the treaty of 1866, and request the government to take action thereon, determining whether or not the government will accept or reject said proposition. In this memorial the Choctaws agree to give said freedmen educational facilities in neighborhood schools equal with said Choctaws, and request the government to declare such freedmen as may not elect to become citizens

of the nation to be on the same footing with other citizens of the United States resident therein.

Senator Ingalls, on the 23d of February, 1882, introduced a bill (S. 1299) in the Senate, entitled a bill "to enable the Choctaw freedmen to become citizens of the Choctaw Nation," being a ratification and an acceptance of said memorial and proposition, which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs.

The freedmen of these three nations have been a long time deprived of the rights to which they are justly entitled, and have been trying to be heard during all these years, but have been put off under one pretext or another until they should not be required to wait longer on account of a failure on the part of these nations to take more definite action in establishing their status. I cannot, therefore, too strongly urge upon Congress the adoption of such legislation as will afford the freedmen prompt relief and forever settle the difficulties and embarrassments involved in this question.

Creek Nation.-The second article of the Creek treaty of June 14, 1866 (14 Stats., p. 786), stipulated that inasmuch as there were among the Creeks many persons of African descent who had no interest in the soil, thereafter these persons lawfully residing in said Creek country under their laws and usages, or who had been residing and should return within one year from the ratification of the treaty, and their descendants, and such others of the same race as were permitted by the laws of the nation to settle within the limits of the jurisdiction of the Creek Nation as citizens thereof, should have and enjoy all the rights and privileges of native citizens, including an equal interest in the soil and national funds, and the laws should be equally binding upon and give equal protection to all such persons, and all others, of whatsoever race or color, who might be adopted citizens or members of the tribe.

These Indians have respected their treaty stipulations relating to their freedmen, and have granted them every right of other citizens, as declared in the second section of Article 1, Chapter VII, entitled citizenship and non-citizens (Muskogee Laws, p. 57, edition of 1880), which provides that—

All persons who have been at any time adopted by the recognized authorities of the Muskogee Nation, and all persons of African descent who were made citizens by the treaty of June, 1866, between the Creek Nation and the United States, shall hereafter be recognized as citizens of the Muskogee Nation.

Seminole Nation.-The same stipulations respecting the freedmen of the Creek Nation are incorporated in the second article of the Seminole treaty of March 21, 1866 (14 Stats., p. 756), respecting their freedmen, and the same action was taken by the nation in their behalf, no distinction being made in the Seminole Nation between the races.

KANSAS INDIAN INDEBTEDNESS, AS REPRESENTED BY "KAW SCRIP."

By a resolution of the Senate of January 27th last, the Secretary of the Interior was directed to inform the Senate of the amount of indebtedness by the Kansas tribe of Indians to individuals represented by certificates issued by any officer of the government; the status of said indebtedness, whether legal or equitable, or both; what, if any, assets of said tribe the government holds; "and what legisiation, if any, is nec essary, in order that said indebtedness may be paid, and the financial relations of said tribe to the government, growing out of the sale of its reservation in the State of Kansas, may be speedily and finally settled." As an early adjustment of this long-standing indebtedness is greatly